Churchill Club: Gauging trust and influence amid the data barrage

In the latest installment of Churchill Club talks, a panel examined how the next generation of business leaders will have to become adept at using and understanding massive amounts of data from all over.

At issue is gaining the trust of so-called "info-entials." The panel, moderated by Katie Hafner, of the New York Times included:

• Robert Cialdini, President, Influence At Work and Author of "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion"
• Richard Edelman, President & CEO, Edelman
• Anastasia Goodstein, Founder, Ypulse and Author of "Totally Wired: What Teens & Tweens Are Really Doing Online"
• Chris Kelly, Chief Privacy Officer, Facebook, Inc.

Simply put, trust--gained via managing information over everything from social networks to text and instant messaging--may be worth more than price and quality in winning over customers.